


Calm Caleb

by LivesToLead



Series: Dead Man [1]
Category: Critical Role (Web Series)
Genre: Bleeding Out, Caleb dad vibes, Feelings, Friendship, Healing Potion, Jester the cleric, Tears, everybbody's freaking out
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-02-19
Updated: 2018-02-19
Packaged: 2019-03-21 11:34:58
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: Major Character Death
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,654
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/13740027
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/LivesToLead/pseuds/LivesToLead
Summary: Death was never on the agendaBut then again, he couldn’t think of a single person that had death on their agenda~*~Caleb's Hurt





	Calm Caleb

**Author's Note:**

> First Critical Role fanfiction  
> Please be gentle

Death was never on the agenda 

But then again, he couldn’t think of a single person that had death on their agenda

At this point Caleb should be used to the feeling of bleeding out, it’s really his own fault for refusing to buy or as Nott suggests steal any armour, but he loved books more than protection, and he guessed that spoke in volumes when it came to the safety of his own well being. He could tell his comrades we’re getting sick of it, especially Nott, she even took it as far as saying that if he died, she would bring him back to life and kill him, he found it more endearing than anything else. Though he was sure that was one of the last things she was thinking about, right now she one foot on his wound to “keep pressure”, the other foot in front of him to defend against the threat currently at hand. From his position in the grass he could see how her eye’s revealed how worried she was and the way her hand occasionally twitches down to reach for her flask with her building anxiety, but she stops herself, as she snarls and shoots her crossbow to protect him. 

He’s slipping in and out of consciousness now and while it hurts to breath, this is one of the most relaxing experiences he’s had at this point. Usually while he’s on the brink of death it feels more frantic and like the world won’t stop moving, and he just wants it to stop. Right now though he can feel the individual blades of grass that press against the back of his head and hands, he can feel the slight breeze that blows through his hair, but doesn’t move it. He can feel how it starts to rain, just a bit, the first drop landing on his forehead and then trails down his cheek, he doesn’t make a move to wipe it away, not that he thinks he could even if he wanted to. 

There’s more rain drops, but he doesn’t mind the cold.

The battle becomes background noise as he closes his eye’s focusing on his heartbeat, he can feel it slowing down little by little, he tries to make it so it speeds up, but the slow beating is so relaxing and despite his better judgement, he thinks a nap sounds great right now. 

That thought doesn’t get far though as he feels arms wrap around him to pick him up, and a hand lightly patting him on the cheek to wake up, he opens his eyes to see Fjord holding him, looking down at him with wide eye’s, he’s saying something, Caleb decides not to be rude and tunes in to hear the sound of a roaring explosion in the background. 

“Hm?” Fjord looks surprised the sound, Caleb smiles. “I wasn’t listening.” He somewhat slurs, Fjords face floods with relief as he looks forward again, Caleb notices the tree lines moving, Fjords running. 

“Fuckin’ Christ Caleb.” Fjord lets a small smile come onto his face before it disappears. “Just hang on a little longer, we’re almost to the cart.”

“Why the cart?” Caleb coughs, he watches as red spurts forward, he finds it to be a beautiful color, but he doesn’t think Fjord finds it as beautiful because his face turns into panic. 

“Our friends are there,” Fjords tone is frantic, “and Jester, she’s going to heal you, you’re going to be fine.” The last part is more to himself than to the wizard, Caleb furrows his eyebrows. 

“Nott.” Caleb says simply, Fjord doesn’t say anything. “Nott where’s Nott?” Caleb starts to move to look for her.

“She’s there too.” His voice is hard as he tightens his grip on Caleb to keep him from moving. 

What seems like forever they make it to the cart, Fjord lays Caleb down, Jester immediately brings his head into her lap as Nott simply curls into his side, taking one of his hands to bring it up to her cheek. Molly whips the rein on the horse to make the cart go, it wont get them back to the inn any faster, but this way they’d be able to tend to Caleb more efficiently without wasting any time. 

Their using Mollymauk’s coat to shield Caleb from the rain, he manages a small smile as he looks up at his friends, he can barely hear them as he slips in and out. 

“-thing wrong!” Jester’s voice comes out as the most distinct. “It’s not-!” Arguing and yelling erupts.

“What’re-?” He opens his eyes for a brief moment to see Beau with a scrunched and angry face, his eye’s close again.

“Caleb-?” There’s a hand patting on his face again, he guesses it’s Fjord.

“Pressure!” Molly shouts. “- have healing - inn!” 

Caleb coughs again and they all look down at him with pained expressions. “So much fuss,” he heaves in a breath, “over a dying man.” Caleb smiles, before turning his head and opens his eyes to Nott whos holding his hand tight to her cheek, he sighs. “You are such a troublemaker.” Nott sniffles, holding back obvious tears, he moves his head back again to address the whole cart. “Make sure she doesn’t get in too much trouble.” 

“Nope.” Beau somewhat yelps. “You’re fine, we just have to get you back to the inn, and then you can take care of her yourself.” She wipes quickly at her nose trying to deflect her emotions. “Don’t be an idiot.” 

“Caleb,” he turns his attention back to Nott, “stay,” he can feel the tears fall down her face and over his hand, he merely smiles as he feels his eyes slowly flutter close, “please?”

The moment his eyes close Jester is on top of him pumping on his chest to keep his heart pumping, Molly holds Nott close to his chest as they watch the blue tiefling, Beau leans back against the cart looking up at the sky, Fjord hovers over as Jester continues. 

“C’mon you big dummy.” Jester says through gritted teeth, her own tears start to fall. “Wake up!” She yells, her pumps getting weaker. “She needs you!” She gives one hard pump. “We need you!” She breaks down onto his chest, Fjord moves her off of him to continue where she left off.

“Just hold on.” Fjord whispers to the motionless Caleb.

It shouldn’t have happened in the first place. It wasn’t their first time killing a huge fiend, but then again there were two fiends, but even then there shouldn’t be any excuse for what happened. No one expected anything to happen so early in the fight, but things never go right. One of the fiends slashed Caleb across the abdomen, Nott immediately rushed over to him, it was a deep cut, she didn’t leave his side the entire fight. Everyone was worried and feared for their friends life, but they had to take care of the major issue before they could get to Caleb. They got one of the fiends down, but they were running low on energy and spells, lucky for them they had some explosives from a mine they had raided. Fjord sent the others ahead, Nott didn’t make it easy either, Beau had to rip her away from Caleb, promising that he’ll be coming along soon, she screamed the entire time. The half orc lit the explosives off, he ran to gather Caleb up not worrying if the fiend had died or not, he just had to focus on getting to the others. Part way through their trek back, Jester had lifted her hands from Caleb telling them that her healing was working on him, his wounds were too great. Amongst their arguing Molly had told them that there was a healing potion back at the inn, they just had to make sure he made it there. 

There was a heartbeat, but barely.

They rushed into their current inn Beau running ahead to unlock the door, Fjord rushes in behind her, Molly immediately runs in rummaging through the nightstand drawer before taking out the red liquid in the bottle. No one asks why Molly has the healing potion instead of the cleric, but for now they're just grateful that they have it, questions are for when no ones dying. 

Molly leans Caleb’s head back and pours the liquid down his throat. 

Nott climbs onto the bed immediately and grabs Caleb’s face with desperation, waiting for color to return to his face or for him to pop up and gasp for breath, but they wait and wait and wait. Nott presses her ear to his chest, they watch as her eyes begin to well with tears, she fists the front of his shirt as she presses her face into his chest. 

No one moves. Everyone just sits in silence as they watch Nott cry over Caleb’s body. 

After an hour or so of sitting around and silently crying, they leave the room one by one, Nott refusing to move and stays clinging to the lifeless body. 

First was Beau, she stood over the bed for a moment just looking at Caleb before she left the room, Molly did the same after Beau, but gave him a light pet on his face before leaving. Jester followed giving Caleb a hug and giving Nott a kiss on the head, she looked behind her at Fjord as she left. 

After Jester left he got up and kneeled next to the bed and stared at Nott for a moment and how she keeps her eyes shut tight. Fjord sighs as he wipes away at stray tears, he puts a hand on Notts head, she squeezes out a few stray tears, he leans up and places a kiss on the top of Caleb’s head. He closes the door behind him and once Nott is finally alone, she starts to wail.

**Author's Note:**

> Comments greatly Appreciated!  
> Thanks for reading!  
> Sorry if I gave you feels!


End file.
